Saltburn Director Emeral Fennell Adapting Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights

Summary

• Fennell follows
  Saltburn’s
  success with a new film, adapting the classic novel Wuthering Heights. No cast or release date are available yet.
• Unpredictable filmmaker Fennell is set to put her spin on the Gothic tale, matching themes explored in her previous work.
• Wuthering Heights has been adapted several times for film. Fennell now has the chance to create her version.

Hot off Saltburn’s acclaim, filmmaker Emerald Fennell has secured her next feature film. In recent years, Fennell has become one of the most acclaimed and polarizing filmmakers. Following her work on the hit television series Killing Eve, she won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Promising Young Woman. Her latest film, Saltburn, might have failed to make a splash at the Academy Awards, but it crossed over into mainstream popularity thanks to going viral on social media sites like TikTok. All eyes have been on what Fennell would do next, and she has decided to adapt a piece of classic literature.

Fennell announced on the social media site X, formally Twitter, that her next film would be an adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Published in 1847 by author Emily Brontë, initially under her pen name Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights is a classic piece of Gothic literature that follows two families known as the Earnshaws and the Lintons through the years, with a major focus being the love story between orphan Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw Linton, the daughter of the man who adopted him. Currently, no cast members have been announced for Fennell’s version of the film or any release date.

Fennell is the Perfect Fit for Wuthering Heights

Both Promising Young Woman and Saltburn gained polarizing reviews from critics and audiences alike, which has made Fennell one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. At one point, Warner Bros. hired her to pen a screenplay for a film based on the popular DC hero Zatanna, but the project was scrapped during Warner Bros. Discovery’s restructuring amid their changing plans for the DC franchise. While Jurassic Park is moving forward with a new film by Garreth Edwards, Fennell pitched a different take on that franchise too. With Wuthering Heights, Fennell now has a chance to put her own spin on a previously told story.

Wuthering Heights has been adapted for film several times, including adaptations of the Spanish language and Indian-Hindi language. The first film adaptation was in 1920 as a silent film, while the most famous version was released in 1939 by William Wyler, which featured Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Catherine. Timothy Dalton starred in an adaptation in the 1970s, and in 1992’s Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights starred Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes in his film debut. The story was given a modern take by MTV in 2003, starring Erika Christensen, Mike Vogel and Katherine Heigl, which featured songs written and produced by Bat Out of Hell songwriter Jim Steinman. The most recent movie adaptation was 2011’s Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold, featuring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson.

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While now regarded as one of the greatest English novels ever written, Wuthering Heights reviews were polarized at the time of its release. This, combined with the fact that the novel is known as a cornerstone of Gothic literature and exploring class, very much matches many of the themes Fennell likes to explore in her work. Having worked with exciting talent like Carey Mulligan, Barry Keoghan, and Jacob Elordi, all eyes will be on who Fennell will cast in this adaptation of the legendary novel.

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